America ranks #1 for highest number of kids in cages, according to new U.N. report
A new U.N. study on the treatment of children released today ranks the United States #1 on the list of countries with the highest child incarceration rate in the world. The report highlights the U.S. family separation and detention policy as the leading contributor to the ranking, stating that the practice is “absolutely prohibited” under the Convention on the Rights of Children.
In an interview with NPR, the report’s author Manfred Nowak said that his team estimated that the U.S. was still detaining about 100,000 children in migration-related detention.
The U.N. report also found that:
”In the United States… Apprehensions (and detention) of children reached a peak between October 2018 and August 2019, the first 11 months of the fiscal year 2019 (fiscal year, FY), when US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehended 72,873 unaccompanied children and 457,871 members of ‘family units’ at or near the US-Mexico border.”
The U.S. has ignored repeated warnings from the international community, including one in June of 2018 from the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which stated in clear terms: “The deprivation of liberty of an asylum-seeking, refugee, stateless or migrant child, including unaccompanied or separated children, is prohibited.”
It’s important to note that the U.S. also withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council in June 2018 as well.
To read the full report, please visit here.